From this explanation we can clearly understand the meaning of the three recognitions. If, with clear understanding, we continually practise the three recognitions day and night without ever forgetting them, this is the quick method for completing our training in purifying and transforming the six classes of living being.
THE SIXTH STAGE: MANTRA RECITATION
The mantra we recite in this sadhana is OM MANI PÄME HUM. Externally it is a collection of six syllables, but internally it is the omniscient wisdom of Avalokiteshvara, which protects living beings from ordinary appearance and conception, the root of all suffering. The six syllables of this mantra indicate that if we continually recite this mantra with strong faith throughout our life we will be able to purify and transform the six classes of living being, including ourself. Understanding this we should enjoy reciting this mantra.
The meaning of this mantra is: with OM we are calling Avalokiteshvara, MANI means the precious jewel of enlightenment, PÄME means liberation and HUM means please bestow. Together the meaning is: ‘O Avalokiteshvara, please bestow the precious jewel of enlightenment to liberate all living beings.’ Through the recitation of this mantra we train in the compassionate mind of bodhichitta.
To accomplish a close retreat of Avalokiteshvara we need to recite this mantra one million times in conjunction with the sadhana.
THE SEVENTH STAGE: DEDICATION
We practise this as follows. Understanding that unbearable suffering pervades the entire world, and with deep compassion for all living beings, from our heart we mentally repeat the following dedication prayer continually, again and again, every day. This will cause Avalokiteshvara, who is the synthesis of all Buddhas, to enter and abide at our heart so that we can quickly complete our training in purifying and transforming the six classes of living being.
DEDICATION PRAYER:
Through the virtues I have accumulated
By training in compassion and wisdom,
May all the impurities of the six classes of living being be purified,
And thus may they all transform into enlightened beings.
PART TWO
Training in Meditation
What is Meditation?
We should also put the advice from Je Tsongkhapa’s heart, The Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Enlightenment, into practice by training in meditation on the stages of the path to enlightenment. This will now be explained.
In general, the definition of meditation is a mind that is single-pointedly focused on a virtuous object and whose function is to make the mind peaceful and calm.
We want to be happy all the time, even during sleep. How can we do this? We can do this through training in meditation because meditation makes our mind peaceful, and when our mind is peaceful we are happy all the time, even if our external conditions are poor. On the other hand, when our mind is not peaceful we are not happy, even if our external conditions are excellent. We can understand this through our own experience. Since the actual method to make our mind peaceful is training in meditation, we should apply effort to this training. Whenever we meditate, we are performing an action or karma that causes us to experience peace of mind in the future. From this we can understand the importance of training in meditation.
The difference between concentration and meditation is that concentration is necessarily a mental factor but meditation can be either a mental factor or a primary mind. We can understand the meaning of primary mind and mental factor from the book How to Understand the Mind. The object of concentration can be anything, but the object of meditation is necessarily a virtuous object. Whether an object is virtuous or non-virtuous depends on our position. For example, when our enemy harms us and we practise patience, our enemy is our virtuous object, the object of our patience, but if instead we get angry with him he is our non-virtuous object, the object of our anger. So it is our choice whether someone or something is our virtuous object or non-virtuous object. We should learn to use all living beings as our virtuous objects, the objects of our compassion and patience, and all phenomena as the objects of our training in emptiness. There is no greater Dharma practice than this.
There is a threefold division of meditation:
1. Meditation of a person of initial scope
2. Meditation of a person of middling scope
3. Meditation of a person of great scope
Meditation of a Person of Initial Scope
There are five meditations of a person of initial scope:
1. Meditation on the preciousness of our human life
2. Meditation on death
3. Meditation on the danger of lower rebirth
4. Meditation on going for refuge
5. Meditation on karma
MEDITATION ON THE PRECIOUSNESS OF OUR HUMAN LIFE
THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEDITATION
The purpose of this meditation is to encourage ourself to take the real meaning of our human life and not to waste it in meaningless activities. Our human life is very precious, but only if we use it to attain permanent liberation and the supreme happiness of enlightenment through practising Dharma purely and sincerely. We should encourage ourself to accomplish the real meaning of our human life. What is the real meaning of human life?
Many people believe that material development is the real meaning of human life, but we can see that no matter how much material development there is in the world it never reduces human suffering and problems. Instead, it often causes suffering and problems to increase; therefore it is not the real meaning of human life. We should know that at present we have reached the human world for just a brief moment from our former lives, and we have the opportunity to attain the supreme happiness of enlightenment through practising Dharma. This is our extraordinary good fortune. When we attain enlightenment we will have fulfilled our own wishes, and we can fulfil the wishes of all other living beings; we will have liberated ourself permanently from the sufferings of this life and countless future lives, and we can directly benefit each and every living being every day. The attainment of enlightenment is therefore the real meaning of human life.
As mentioned in Part One, enlightenment is the inner light of wisdom that is permanently free from all mistaken appearance, and whose function is to bestow mental peace on each and every living being every day. Right now we have obtained a human rebirth and have the opportunity to attain enlightenment through Dharma practice, so if we waste this precious opportunity in meaningless activities there is no greater loss and no greater foolishness. This is because in the future such a precious opportunity will be extremely hard to find. In one Sutra Buddha illustrates this by giving the following analogy. He asks his disciples, ‘Suppose there existed a vast and deep ocean the size of this world, and on its surface there floated a golden yoke, and at the bottom of the ocean there lived a blind turtle who surfaced only once in every one hundred thousand years. How often would that turtle raise its head through the middle of the yoke?’ His disciple, Ananda, answers that, indeed, it would be extremely rare.
In this context, the vast and deep ocean refers to samsara – the cycle of impure life that we have experienced since beginningless time, continually in life after life without end – the golden yoke refers to Buddhadharma, and the blind turtle refers to us. Although we are not physically a turtle, mentally